PADI Medical Form Explained: When You Need a Physician to Sign Your Diver Medical

You booked the open water course, the shop sent the paperwork, and one form stopped everything: the Diver Medical Participant Questionnaire, often just called the PADI medical form. Answer yes to a single screening question and the dive shop legally cannot train you until a physician signs off. This guide explains what the form is, why a yes answer is not a no to diving, and how to get the signature without losing weeks.

What the PADI medical form actually is

The form is a two-part medical screening built by the Recreational Scuba Training Council (RSTC) and used by PADI, SSI, NAUI and most training agencies worldwide.

Part one is the questionnaire you fill out yourself: ten yes or no questions about your lungs, heart, ears, nervous system, medications and surgical history, with follow-up boxes that narrow each yes down. We walk every screening area in our question-by-question guide to the diver medical questionnaire.

Part two is the Physician’s Evaluation Form. It only comes into play if you answered yes somewhere. A licensed physician reviews your history and makes a binary call: approved or not approved. PADI standards allow no conditional clearances and no maybes.

Which answers trigger the physician requirement

The questionnaire screens for conditions that matter underwater: asthma and other lung disease, heart conditions, ear and sinus problems that affect equalization, seizure history, diabetes, behavioral health conditions, recent surgery, and several age and fitness related items. A yes on any of them routes you to part two.

A yes is common and usually manageable. Well-controlled asthma with normal recent spirometry, controlled blood pressure on non-sedating medication, a fully healed ear surgery, an old knee reconstruction with full function: histories like these are frequently compatible with recreational diving. The point of the physician evaluation is an individual judgment on your actual records, not a reflexive rejection.

Why your own doctor may hesitate to sign it

Most primary care physicians see this form once a decade. Dive medicine is a niche, the form carries the physician’s signature and license number, and many doctors decline out of unfamiliarity or liability concern rather than any specific problem with your health. That leaves divers with a booked course and no signature, which is exactly the gap a dedicated dive medical evaluation fills.

How to get your dive medical signed online

PADI standards require a licensed physician evaluation and a signature. They do not require the visit to happen in an office. A legitimate online dive medical evaluation looks like this:

1. You flag your yes answers and upload the relevant records, for example recent spirometry if you flagged asthma.

2. A physician sees you on a live video visit. At DiveSlip that is a scheduled visit of about 15 minutes with Dr. Adam Z. Kawalek, a board-certified internist who is also a PADI certified diver. No clearance is ever issued from a questionnaire alone.

3. You get the signed form the same day. When clearance is appropriate, the completed RSTC Physician’s Evaluation Form arrives in your inbox signed with the physician’s name, NPI and state license number. Show it to the shop and go dive.

An honest evaluation also has to be able to say no. Some histories, such as coronary disease, a collapsed lung, seizure disorders or insulin-dependent diabetes, need in-person dive medicine evaluation and testing that video cannot replace. In those cases DiveSlip refers you to in-person care and refunds every dollar automatically.

What it costs and how long it lasts

DiveSlip’s evaluation is $91 flat: records review, live video visit, and the signed form. Training agencies generally treat the clearance as current for 12 months, so divers with flagged history renew annually. Keep a copy with your certification card, because resorts and liveaboards often ask for it again.